Vegetables

Oxford Symposium

Vegetables

Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2008

In this continuing series, the topic of vegetables embraces a wide range of pieces from English, American and overseas scholars. Their treatments encompass both a broader consideration of the vegetable diet and the history of the cultivation and consumption of specific varieties. Cookery and consumption are not highlighted at the expense of cultivation, so there are some interesting essays on allotments, market gardening in the Paris region, early-modern vegetable gardening in England and the development of markets in India. The theme has been treated with admirable latitude in contributions on vegetables and diplomacy, vegetable carving, and vegetables in Renaissance art.

Contents

Vegetable Carving: For Your Eyes Only

Julia Abramson

The War of the Vegetables: The Rise and Fall of the English Allotment Movement

Lesley Acton

The First Scientific Defense of a Vegetarian Diet

Ken Albala

The Roman Vegetable Garden

Joan P. Alcock

The Bitter – and Flatulent – Aphrodisiac: Synchrony and Diachrony of the Culinary Use of Muscari Comosum in Greece and Italy

Anthony F. Buccini

We Talked About the Aubergines: International Diplomacy and the Cretan Diet

Andrew Dalby

The Carrot Purple

Joel S. Denker

Listening to Vegetables

Len Fisher and Nick Sorensen

Vegetables as a Symbol in Design and Art

Anna Marie Fisker & Tenna Doktor Olsen

An Edible Wild Thistle from the Lebanese Mountains

Anissa Helou

Allotment Diaries

Phil Iddison

Salvation in Sweetness? Sugar Beets in Antebellum America

Cathy K. Kaufman

Up on the Farm: The Role of Vegetables in Conquering Space

Jane Levi

The History of the Potato in Irish Cuisine and Culture

Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and Pádraic Óg Gallagher

‘Sweet as’– Notes on the Kumara or New Zealand Sweet Potato as a Taonga or Treasure

Ray McVinnie

The American Pumpkin

Mark McWilliams

Wild Thing: The Naga Morich Story

Michael Michaud and Joy Michaud

‘Per rape et porri et per spinachi’: Examining the Realities of Vegetable Consumption at the Monastery of Santa Trinità in Post-Plague Florence

Salvatore Musumeci

The Maraîchers – Market Gardeners of the Ile-de-France

Lizabeth Nicol

The Southern California Vegetable Cult

Charles Perry

From the Plate to the Palate: Visual Delights from the Vegetable Kingdoms of Italy